Advanced Television

Cable

Series stacking on Virgin

The BBC iPlayer's series stacking feature – allowing Viewers to stream any episode, after it has first been broadcast, for the duration of an entire series. – is now available on Virgin’s digital cable TV service. The 'series catch up' option has been added to the iPlayer’s cable home screen, bringing functionality that has been […]

December 16, 2008

Virgin targets BitTorrent users

Virgin Media has confirmed that it will introduce network monitoring technology in 2009 to specifically target and restrict BitTorrent traffic. The move will represent a major policy shift for the ISP/cable provider. Virgin Media currently temporarily throttles the bandwidth of its heaviest downloaders across all applications at peak times, rather than targeting and shaping specific […]

December 16, 2008

Cablecom slashes workforce

Liberty Global's Swiss subsidiary Cablecom has said it plans to lay off up to 150 staff as part of its organizational streamlining, citing 'increasingly fierce competition.' Cablecom, Switzerland’s largest cable operator also said that Managing Director Rudolf Fischer will resign. He will remain in his post until a successor has been found, the company said. […]

December 10, 2008

J:COM high-spec STB

Jupiter Telecommunications has announced that it will start offering a new HDR Plus service, delivered via an advanced STB across all service areas from December 17th. The new STB model "TZ-DCH8000" features an enhanced DVD drive with high-definition video recording capability as well as an expanded 500 gigabyte hard disk. HDR Plus will allow users […]

December 4, 2008

Time Warner CFO predicts woe

Time Warner Cable will likely sell fewer than expected video, Internet and phone subscriptions this year, and expects a further decline next year due to the worsening U.S. economy, Chief Financial Officer Rob Marcus said. “In 2008, we’re on track to deliver less than 2.5 million additional revenue-generating units,” Marcus told the Reuters Media Summit […]

December 3, 2008

UPC Ireland and Nagravision settle court proceedings

UPC Ireland and Nagravision have reached a settlement of court proceedings against an illegal distributor. This brings to a conclusion a prolonged investigation which originally commenced in November 2006. Operation Gaelic, a covert investigation, revealed an extensive distribution network in Ireland managed by Thomas Roddy which involved the sale of illegal digital boxes and distribution […]

December 3, 2008

J:COM buys Taito

Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM), the largest multiple system operator in Japan has acquired 97.9 per cent of the total outstanding shares in the Jyohoku New Media. As a result of the purchase, Taito Cable Television has now become a consolidated subsidiary of J:COM. J:Com said that it expected the deal to expand its reach in the […]

December 2, 2008

ONO losses subs and profit on quarter

From David Del Valle in Madrid Spain’s largest cable operator ONO lost 19,000 subs in the third quarter which the company blamed on the deteriorating economic environment and a lack of commercial activity during summer time. ONO ended the third quarter with 1,935,636 total subs, with telephony experiencing the sharpest decline losing more than 7,000 […]

November 27, 2008

Unitymedia Q3 profit up

Unitymedia, Germany’s second biggest cable provider has posted higher net profit and sales, which were mainly boosted by new broadband and fixed line services. Net profit for the quarter ended September 30th was up to E16.4 million from E12.1 million in the year-earlier quarter. “Compared with the prior quarter, cable network providers had higher growth […]

November 20, 2008

Virgin cuts 15% of workforce to fill debt gap

Virgin Media announced a programme of 2,200 job cuts, or 15 per cent of its total staff, as part of a restructuring operation. The company claimed it would improve efficiency "significantly", and that cuts would be implemented mainly between the end of 2009 and the end of 2010. The move by Virgin, which employs 14,600 […]

November 13, 2008